PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — Election day in Clearwater is Tuesday, and voters will decide who will be the city's next mayor.
In a heated race for the Clearwater position, two candidates, councilmember Kathleen Beckman and local attorney Bruce Rector, are going head to head.
This comes after former Mayor Frank Hibbard abruptly quit during a council meeting last March.
In that meeting, Hibbard argued that a new city hall that would cost millions of dollars was unnecessary spending for a city already facing a deficit.
Now, Beckman and Rector are facing off to replace Hibbard.
ABC Action News asked them both what their goals would be as mayor.
"Pocketbook issues, driving down the cost for city operations as well as residents is top of the list for me along with transparency," said Beckman.
"Recruiting and retaining the best police and fire officers that we can get and then traffic congestion. We need to spend some money on infrastructure. On road streets and sidewalks," said Rector.
Another big focus is how Scientology is impacting Clearwater and how to address it going forward.
"I do believe it is important to have conversations with all of our property owners throughout the city in property that's not activated or not activated fully," said Beckman.
"They want to see balance between something non-Scientology and Scientology, so we've gotta find a pathway to get to that point," said Rector.
When it comes to hurricane preparations and flooding prevention, Beckman said she is going to look at a city-wide vulnerability study to see where the city can improve.
"Work real hard to lower our community rating system number that'll affect flood insurance for businesses, the city-owned buildings, as well as residences," said Beckman.
Rector said the city needs to focus on improving building resiliency and emergency funds for future storms.
"There's no FEMA money to replace everything and do everything. You have to have some some amount of capital reserve so we need to make sure we're not spending those reserves unwisely and protecting them and our taxpayers money," said Rector.
Resident and owner of a picture frame shop, Alexis Perez, said she wants the next mayor to focus on issues like traffic and safety.
"I always thought they should do the roads before they build the houses. I think schools are very important, the children, and that they have safe places to play," said Perez.
She said no matter who is elected this Tuesday, she hopes it will help grow Clearwater.
"There's always something going on here, and people are just getting excited about it," said Perez.
